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Caps Send Nine to Minsk for 2014 World Championship

Posted on May 08, 2014
by Mike Vogel

When the 2014 IIHF World Championship gets underway in Minsk
on Friday, the Washington Capitals organization will be well represented. Nine
members of the Capitals organization will be playing for their countries when
the tournament gets underway this weekend, and those nine will be spread
amongst five different rosters.

The Washington contingent includes three Canadians, three
Russians and one player each from the United States, Belarus and Germany.

“You know I still
want to play hockey this year,” said Ovechkin after the Caps’ season ended
without Washington in the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time in seven
springs. “I have emotion and I have strength. It’s going to be a nice time for
me to try and win a World Championship and try and have a good mood.”

“It’s going to be
very interesting because world championship going to be in my hometown,” says
Grabovski, “so I’m kind of more excited than anybody. But playing against Wardo
or Chimmer or Brouwer is going to be interesting and it is going to be hard,
and it is going to be hard for them.”

Grabovski may not
need to worry about running into his three Canadian Caps teammates on the ice
in Minsk. Canada is in Group A in the tournament along with Sweden, the Czech
Republic, Slovakia, Norway, Denmark, France and Italy.

Group B is
comprised of Finland, Russia, the United States, Switzerland, Germany, Latvia,
Belarus and Kazakhstan.

Each team will play
one game against each of the other seven teams in its group, and those games
will be played in a span of 12 days from May 9-20. The top four teams in each
group will then advance to the playoff round, which begins on May 22. Four
quarterfinal games will be played on the 22nd, and two semi-final
tilts will follow on May 24.

The gold medal and
bronze medal games will be played on May 25.

Chimera won a gold
medal with Team Canada at the 2007 World Championship in Moscow and earned
silver the following spring in Halifax. He will be playing in his third World
Championship and his first since 2008. Chimera has a goal and eight points in
18 career games worth of World Championship competition.

He’ll be joined by
linemate Joel Ward in Minsk, but the third member of that trio – Eric Fehr –
won’t be joining them. The Chimera-Fehr-Ward unit was Washington’s most
consistent forward line over the last two months of the 2013-14 season.

“I got invited to
the World Championship so I’m going to go do that,” replied Chimera last month
when asked about his summer plans. “They should have [taken] the whole line.
But yeah it should be good, it’s always a fun tournament to play in. Anytime
you get a chance to wear your nation’s colors it’s just pretty special. It’s a
fun tournament that I have been a part of a couple of times now so it’ll be
good.”

Ovechkin will be
appearing in the World Championship games for the fifth consecutive spring and
the seventh time overall. He has totaled 15 goals and 27 points in 35 games
worth of competition at the World Championship games over the years. Ovechkin
earned a bronze medal in 2007 and a silver in 2010 before finally winning the
gold in 2012. This spring, Orlov and Kuznetsov will join the Caps’ captain on
the Team Russia roster.

Orlov is making his
World Championship debut this spring.

“Of course it’s big
for me because I got like first called up for the international team and I’m
pretty excited for this and can’t wait to start practices,” says Orlov. “Of
course it’s big for our country and for all Russians to play on the national
team.”

Kuznetsov is making
his second appearance in the tournament; he contributed two goals and six
points in 10 games to the Team Russia cause when it won gold in 2012.

“It’s very
important for all Russian players,” says Kuznetsov. “You know, everybody loves
their country right? You play for your national team and the whole country is
watching this. You want to play. Me, Dmitry and Alex are all very excited to
play.”

Grabovski has
appeared in four previous World Championship tournaments, totaling three goals
and 14 points in 24 games.

Leggio, Grubauer,
Ward and Brouwer will all be making their tournament debuts in the 2014 World
Championship.